New at Bumbershoot Designs. Seattle Rain Drops Vintage Glass Pearl Necklace, Antique Clasp

There are a number of new pieces in Bumbershoot Designs this week, but in keeping with the pearl theme that was the focus of the Bumbershoot monthly newsletter, I offer this new necklace.  It's been a while since I have offered teardrop necklaces in the Seattle Rain series, so it was really exciting to find these gorgeous vintage Japanese glass pearls to work with.

To my mind, with classic designs the components must be absolutely top notch quality for the design to sing. These vintage glass pearls are in glorious condition for their age (60+ years) and the embedded wires allow the bead to come to a real point at the top, so the lines are really elegant.

Plus, the sterling silver scalloped chain provides such a graceful line around the neck.

I finished this necklace with an antique clasp, Edwardian, from the early 1900's, direct off the original card onto the necklace.  Yes, that's right, at least 100 years old.  Cool!

It just doesn't get much better than that!  Works like a charm too! Well, as you can see, more than 100 years later...

...Quality Guaranteed.

You will find this necklace in the vintage pearls section of Bumbershoot Designs, and if you don't, just contact me.

Glass Pearls. A Bit of History and Leonardo da Vinci's Recipe For Making Them

June, the month of roses and weddings and pearls.  This week, as we enter June, seemed like a good time to share a bit of what I have learned about one of my favorite beads of all time, the vintage glass pearl.

Glass, or faux pearls have been around forever.  According to "Pearls. A Natural History" by Landman et al., there are records of imitation pearls as far back as the Roman Empire, through the Middle Ages and into Renaissance Europe. Techniques for making them have varied.

Here is Leonardo da Vinci's recipe for glass pearls:

If you wish to make a paste out of small pearls, take the juice of some lemons and put them to soak in it, and in a night they will be dissolved... Then wash the said paste with clear water a sufficient number of times for it to lose all trace of the lemon juice. After this let the paste dry so that it turns to powder. Then take white of egg, beat it well and leave it to settle and then moisten the said powder with this so that it becomes a paste again. And from this you can make pearls as large as you wish, and leave them to dry. Then place them in a small turning lathe and polish them, if you wish, with a dog's tooth, or if you prefer a polishing stick of crystal or chalcedony.

Moving forward to the 20th century, vintage glass pearls that are currently available for design and/or collecting were usually made with ground fish scales providing the luminosity, although sometimes you will find pearls made with ground mother of pearl (shell) used for the nacre, the pearl's coating. Glass pearls are such interesting vintage treasures to work with, each decade seems to have its own characteristic appearance, which must be in part related to the type of fish scale used to make them.  At Bumbershoot Supplies, we have some glass pearls that are very old, like these 1940's - 1950's beauties from Japan.

...and these buttons, estimated to be from the 1930's.

We have others that are newer, like these 1960's to 1970's beads, also from Japan.

And then, of course, there is vintage mother of pearl, from shells.  Looking at these mother of pearl pieces from Bumbershoot Supplies, you can see why mother of pearl might be used to create a faux pearl.

My birthday is in June.  I have always felt an affinity for pearls of all kinds.  I love the real ones, the glass ones, and mother of pearl.  You can see a small sample of the vintage glass pearls I have in my studio, here. I love to have them visible where I can see and enjoy them, and I frequently use them in my designs. 

So, you can expect to see a continually expanding number of glass and mother of pearl items at both Bumbershoot Supplies and Bumbershoot Designs - after all, a girl can't have too many pearls...

Time Flies. Three Muses. Bracelet With Vintage Czech Watch Bead

This is my entry for this week's challenge, time, at the Three Muses.  

Working title: "Time Flies".

Oh my, this challenge was a challenge on every level imaginable. You know how sometimes there are challenges or topics that just ask a bit more of you?  Well this was one of those for me.  Fortunately I just received a shipment of some absolutely gorgeous vintage beads from Prague, including these lovely 1940's watch beads.  I was determined to figure out how to use them. These are 2 holed beads, something I have never worked with, so that was a great learning experience.  This piece went through several iterations, as time flew by, and finally ended up as this bracelet. 

Studio Snapshot. Packaging Tips, Use a Big Needle

Nestled in with the nature collection, hand crocheted flowers, bits of beautiful glass, is a very, very big needle. Easy to locate, I use this needle every day to package up jewelry for customers at Bumbershoot Designs.

I love to wrap packages and Bumbershoot Designs, being a boutique with unique and limited edition jewelry pieces, offers wrapping as special as the jewelry.  I use this very big needle to "sew" the tags, paper flowers, and vintage bead onto each package. Usually the bead is a vintage teardrop bead, or as I think of it, a Seattle raindrop.

Personal Symbols. Mixed Media Monday. Nature Inspired Art

This is my entry for this week's challenge, Personal Symbols, at Mixed Media Monday.  This is a 6x6 inch art quilt. The base is an image of some of my handmade paper, scanned and manipulated in the computer then transferred to fabric.  I've added scraps of the original handmade paper, mica, net ribbon, a transparency with a poem, all stitched, and finally some local shells added as an embellishment. 

We were asked to reflect on the images, colors and/or themes that recur in our art.  For me it is nature, hands down.  When I look at my art, I see lots of flowers, trees, forest themes and of course the sea.  I often bring home bits and pieces of the place I have walked, be it beach or forest, to use in my art, or just to keep close (see this studio snapshot).  I feel at my best when outdoors and close to the elements, and I often use the ocean as a theme in my work.  There is a timelessness to the ocean, a sense of eternity and peace that I derive from being near it.  It helps me see myself, like ee cummings eludes to in the poem I use in this piece (see below).

In addition to images, words are also really important to me, words are powerful and evocative.  I often use them in my art, whether they can be seen by the viewer or not.

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

~ee cummings

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, the Fremont Troll

Car crushing Fremont Troll, who lives under the highway in

Fremont, Center of the Universe, Seattle

You will hear more about this troll, later...

To travelers! Enter if you dare!

Through these windows you may peer

This realm exists for all to share

A gift to hold so dear!

~from The Library Troll, by Theo van Joolen

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Copper Pearl All Vintage Cufflinks

I offer several cufflink designs at Bumbershoot Designs, all featuring vintage mother of pearl cabochons, and this is the newest design, just listed today.

These cufflinks are particularly pleasing to me since they are made from all vintage components. The posts are vintage, as are the mother of pearl pieces.  These vintage posts have a natural age related patina that softens the color of the copper plating.  The antiqued copper color works well with this particular mother of pearl, which has a lot of pink flash to it.  These posts work like a charm, nice and smooth, but secure.

I love offering a jewelry item for men. Although I have sold cufflinks to women for their personal use, most frequently my cufflinks are purchased by and/or for men.  I offer 5 additional types of mother of pearl cufflinks, in white and grey pearls, some smooth and some carved.  My Classic Pearl cufflinks were recently featured on the Front Page of Etsy as part of a lovely Father's Day treasury, you can see the treasury here.

All of my cufflinks are available in the cufflinks section of Bumbershoot Designs.  If you need any assistance, just let me know and I'll be glad to help. 

Wishing you a great weekend, and a great Memorial Day Holiday if you are in the US!

New at Bumbershoot Supplies. New Glass, New Plastic, New Metals, Oh My!

Several new items have made their way onto the shelves of Bumbershoot Supplies this week. All vintage, of course :) Here's just a few:

New and restocked vintage cabochons and vintage beads, see the vintage beads and vintage glass cabochons sections of Bumbershoot Supplies, including 1940's beaded pink and white millinery flowers or leaves from Italy (see above), Japanese millefiore and mirrored West German cabochons...

...and these 1940's vintage Czech wintergreen or spearmint beads, to complement the candy cane beads we already stock...

New in plastics are below, see the vintage beads section for the golden donuts and love knots.

These new scrumptious leaves are in the vintage plastic cabochons section.....

New metals, all found in vintage findings, charms, except the brass corrugated beads, which are in with the vintage beads...

If there is something you are wondering about, just contact me, I'm happy to help you find it and answer any questions.

Featured Artist. Sarah Elder of MySoCalledJunkyLife on Etsy

I'm happy to share with you the work of Sarah Elder of MySoCalledJunkyLife on Etsy (also called seraart, don't get confused, you are in the right place!). 

Sarah asked me for some of the vintage glass pearl shell pendants available at Bumbershoot Supplies, and I asked if she would please share what she did with them. And she did! I love it when that happens!

I feel drawn to Sarah's work since she repurposes truly beautiful vintage components in interesting ways, either alone or in combination with the highest quality contemporary beads, pearls, and findings. If you visit her design shop, you will see exactly what I mean. Especially as we head into June, the month of pearls, you will find lots of pearly items to inspire you.

Sarah also has a supplies shop on Etsy, you can find it here.  Her shop offers unique vintage items beautifully presented, with wonderful photographs. I have often visited her shop to look at her unique tag kits, and I encourage you to visit for a dose of vintage inspiration.

Studio Snapshot. Vintage Rhinestone Pin Inspiration

A vintage rhinestone pin from my small collection, pinned on an antique dress form...

A beautiful piece with antiqued gold filigree, glass stones in various blues and turquoise, plus those remarkable opalescent rhinestones.  Unsigned.